Retreat within to treat without

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Retreat within to treat without.
Welcome back to our discussion on leadership sutras based on the Bhagavad Gita. We will be discussing on this principle of taking breaks, retreating within so that we can get breakthroughs outside. We can treat without.
Now, the Bhagavad Gita offers perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of a leader taking a break at a time when a break would normally have seemed almost impossible to take. That is at the middle of a battlefield, when the war about to start. Now, in such a situation, normally the urge to act is so strong.
And no doubt leadership is a matter of action, but it is a matter also of intelligent action. And intelligent action requires first contemplation, that one is convinced about the right course of action and then execute that course of action. So, what does one do when one is overwhelmed by negativity, lethargy, confusion and a myriad of other negative emotions at that time? One’s action will be half-hearted and one will not be able to put in even 100% effort, will not be able to get the optimal result either.
So, it’s vital that one learns to clear the air internally. Clear the air means clear the confusion that is there, remove the mess from the consciousness and then focus outside. This is where breaks come into the picture.
Now, let’s understand with various examples about how breaks are important and how spiritual breaks are far more valuable than other kinds of breaks and what are the most effective forms of spiritual breaks. Now, suppose a person is working on a computer and the computer is infected by a virus. That’s why whatever is being typed, actually that may be typed, but it will not get saved, it will eventually get deleted.
The data, the currently entered data will get lost, whatever data is there, that might also get lost. So, a software engineer comes and tells the computer user, sir, please take a break right now, we need to install anti-virus software on your computer. He says, no, I don’t have time, don’t disturb me.
No, sir, but the computer is got a virus, everything will get spoiled. If you don’t put anti-virus, don’t be so pessimistic, I won’t listen to your pessimism, get lost. I’m busy right now, can’t you see? Which a person may be busy, that is actually futile, foolishly and futilely busy.
Foolish because one is not recognizing that there’s something more urgent which needs to be done. Futile because whatever one is doing, that is not going to give any constructive result. So, similarly, we all need to recognize that our body-mind complex, a mechanism is like a machine and it often gets infected by negative emotions.
So, arrogance, selfishness, lethargy, pessimism, cynicism, all those negative emotions can overwhelm us. And when they overwhelm us, we become practically ineffectual even if we try to work. And when we try to work, often more work gets done not just by working more but by working better.
So, working better means putting in a better quality of concentration and better quality of choices and execution. Just putting in more work time doesn’t necessarily result in more work. And especially when the mind is infected by viruses, then actually no matter how much work time you may put in, the work output may not be significant at all.
So, at such times, it’s best to take a break so that we disinfect ourselves of the negative emotions that have inflicted us. And now, actually speaking, the idea of taking breaks is not unfamiliar. We all take breaks of different kinds.
At the very basic level, every day after we work, at night we take rest. So, that is itself a break. Now, our bodily machinery needs to get rested and rejuvenated.
And we know that if we don’t take this break, if we don’t sleep, I sleep adequately, then we become inattentive, we become snappy, we become irritable. And that has its own consequences, variety of consequences. So, just as a bodily… Now, sometimes when we try to solve, we are trying to, after a hard day’s work, at night we are trying to solve some problem.
And just thinking about it, thinking about it, we are getting nowhere with it. And we get frustrated. And the more we think about it, the more the problem seems to be unsolvable.
And the more we start becoming apprehensive. But if we can somehow focus on the principle that, okay, let me just take a break. Then we take rest.
And next morning, when we wake up with a fresh mind, after we have freshened ourselves, then we sit down and deal with the problem. And suddenly the solution appears quite clear to us. And it’s a good sound solution which comes, which was just eluding us the previous night.
So, now this is at a very simple level, the power of a break. So, now, actually this kind of break is simply a disconnection from the negative. So, sleeping basically means we turn off our consciousness and the exhaustion that is there in the body, it gets removed by rest.
Now, apart from the daily breaks that we take while sleeping, we also take breaks of, in the form of, say, recreation. We may read magazines or read novels, watch movies, or do various sort of things. No matter how busy we are, people do spend some time on these things.
Why? Because these give a form of recreation. Just as there is rest for the body, we need rest for the mind. So, now, rest for the mind means, actually the mind never becomes inactive.
Even when we are sleeping, the mind is active. So, rest for the mind doesn’t necessarily mean letting the mind go to sleep, but it just means placing the mind in a situation, in a setting that it finds comfortable, it finds relaxing, that it finds joyful. So, where the mind feels at home, now where might it feel at home? Where might it feel at home? Actually, it feels at home.
According to our likes and dislikes, we might find certain things where the mind feels at home. That’s why some people may watch movies, some people may watch television, and like that. But beyond all that, there are some people, these are specific for different people, but beyond that our consciousness finds its rest, its home, ultimately in the supreme unchangeable reality.
And the best break, the spiritual break, is that break which places our consciousness in that reality. How is that? Suppose we are in a boat, and the boat is in the ocean. So, now the ocean has its waves coming up and down, and the boat is just going up and down.
And we are in the boat, which is going up and down, we may feel uncomfortable. And if big waves come, then the amount of discomfort that we feel will be much greater. And the way to deal with this discomfort, the way to remove this discomfort, is by actually turning towards some anchor.
So, something heavier than the boat, with which the boat gets connected, and the waves may come, but at least the shaking will be lesser and lesser. Now, similarly, our consciousness keeps getting shaken. So, say, we and our consciousness are like that boat, and the outer world is like the ocean.
So, we keep getting shaken by the ups and downs of the world. And we need some connection with something unchanging to stay strong. And that connection with the unchanging is what spirituality offers.
So, God is the supreme unchanging reality. As the Bible says, the rock of all ages. So, it is actually He who is, when we connect with Him, then our mind becomes peaceful, then we feel calm, we feel composed, we feel collected.
So, now how do we connect with Him? The way to connect, there are multiple ways, but the primary way is by, we focus on the principle of finding a manifestation of the divine, which can become the focus of our consciousness. So, just as an anchor is something which we have to find ourselves and we have to fix our consciousness on, fix the boat on that. Similarly, we need to find some place where we can fix our consciousness.
And that place where we can fix our consciousness is God. So, now, when we look at the concept of God, now we may, this take, when we take that break and connect with God, fix our consciousness in God, that becomes a spiritual break. And that is what we mean by retreat within.
And our title of the sutra is retreat within to treat without. So, retreat within means go within, go within ultimately to connect with God and then we will be able to treat without. Treat without means deal with whatever external problems that might be there.
So, if we are not internally calm and clear, whatever we do to solve that problem, may be knee-jerk, may be hasty and may well end up making the problem worse instead of better. So, when we retreat within, when we calm ourselves and then turn back and look at the problem, and actually we will be able to deal with the problem much more effectively. So, that’s what actually Arjuna did in the Bhagavad Gita.
So, now retreat, the word often has a negative connotation. The whole idea is that when two armies are fighting and one army find that they are not strong enough, then that army retreats. That is retreat within to treat without.
So, retreat has negative connotation because say when two armies are fighting and one army is not able to fight effectively, then it retreats. So, it often has the idea that when something is, situation is unbearable, we want to go with that situation. We are overwhelmed, we are unable to deal with the situation, so we retreat.
But actually, retreat, when it is, the focus is on going away from the negative, then its association might be, its implication might be of inadequacy. I am not capable of dealing with this, so I am going out. But it can also have a positive connotation in terms of recognizing that actually, we are not just going away from something, we are going towards something.
So, retreat within. So, when we retreat towards God, God is supremely positive reality. And when we retreat within, then that retreat becomes a treat.
It becomes a treat and a treatment. Treatment means something which is cures, treat means something which is enjoyable. So, devotion is the retreat, devotion offers the retreat that is both a treatment and a treat.
Now, moving forward, when we move onwards towards Krishna, now what does it mean moving towards Krishna and what is the benefit? Many of the biggest developments, biggest breakthroughs in science and various other fields, arts and other humanities also, they have come through ideas. And those ideas, those inspirations have essentially come because of something which is beyond human rational step-by-step analysis. So, that came because of, as Gauss, he was working on some mathematical theorems and for a long time he was struggling, but it didn’t work, he was not getting any solutions till he finally came up with the idea of dealing with his thought and thought and thought.
And finally, he just, he writes his diary, two days ago, I just got the solution. So, it was not by my painful effort, but it was by the grace of the Lord. So, he said, I saw the solution and no matter how much I thought, you know, what exactly was missing, why I was not able to think of that earlier, why I suddenly was able to think of it? He said, I don’t know.
So, actually, it is described that God is present in our heart in His immanent manifestation. 15.15, the Gita says that Krishna is present in our heart and when we turn towards Him, then He helps us. So, therefore, the important thing is to turn towards Him, turn towards Him to seek His help.
So, He can guide us in extraordinary ways, He can give us amazing inspiration, the dhammi-buddhi-yoga-mantra, He can give us extraordinary intelligence. So, then retreat is moving towards the positive, the source of all wisdom and then we become, we become empowered with extraordinary insights, inspirations to return back to the external situation and deal with it more effectively. So, now, these are the, this is a special advantage of a spiritual break, a break in which you connect with the supreme spiritual reality, that it connects us with the supreme source of all wisdom, that does not happen that when, usually, when we take other kinds of breaks.
So, now, how do we actually connect with the spiritual reality? We will discuss the principle of A-B-C. So, A is association. We are social creatures and although sometimes the idea of spirituality is that we have to withdraw from the world to a secluded, secluded contemplation, there is only one phase in one kind of spirituality.
The Bhagavata culminates its analysis of various forms of spirituality. It culminates that analysis in the form of Bhakti-yoga, with the recommendation of Bhakti-yoga. And Bhakti-yoga is actually spirituality that is best performed in association.
So, first of all, we need the association of a spiritual mentor. In any field of knowledge that we take, there is the need of a guide, even for something like athletics, if somebody is running. Now, for running, one needs a guide and sometimes champion athletes have some very, very qualified coaches.
So, just as every field requires a guide, similarly, the spiritual field also requires a guide. In fact, a guide is all the more essential in the spiritual field because spirituality is not tangible like the other fields are. Spiritual reality is not perceivable to us.
The Bhagavata also recommends us to seek such a guide. Therefore, for knowing that, pranipat, offer obeisances. And then inquire, render service.
They will give knowledge to you. Who are those people? Jnananas tattva-darsinah. They are tattva-darsinah.
They are the persons who have seen the truth. So, enlightened spiritual seers, when we accept them as our guides, they can illuminate us, supremely illuminate us. And that is our goal.
So, now, how do we… So, it is not that, as I said, we are here, we retreat within. Within there is the Supreme Lord, the source of all intelligence, and we want to go towards Him. So, where does the Guru’s role come into the picture over here? Actually, the Guru does not come between us and God.
Some people fear, why can’t I have a direct connection with God? Yes, we can have a direct connection with God. The Guru does not come in between us and God. The Guru removes what is between us and God.
The Guru guides us and helps us in removing what stands between us and God. Our own ego, our own misconceptions, the misdirection of our desires, all that the Guru helps us correct. And in that way, the Guru helps us go closer to God and experience the empowerment of divine wisdom and divine grace in our life.
So, now, significantly, the Bhagavad-Gita uses the word Guru here in plural, tattva-darsinah, in plural, that indicates not just one, but many teachers we can have. In fact, spirituality is best practiced when we stay in a community of spiritualists, or associate as much as possible with the community of spiritualists, make our social circle, a spiritual social circle, circle of spiritualists. By that, we can share insights and learn from each other’s struggles and successes.
And in that way, we can actually be a part of an army together, a spiritual army against worldly illusion. So, just as a magnet normally points north-south, when that magnet is brought in a room which has its own magnetic field, then the magnet’s orientation gets distorted. So, similarly, we are souls whose natural orientation is towards God.
But when we come to this world, it has its own secondary natural orientation, material bodily orientation, which attracts us towards worldly things. And that’s how our natural orientation, harmonization, connection with the divine gets distorted in this world. So, when we find ourselves in such a culture, which distorts our natural orientation, which makes us more materialistic than spiritualistic, which makes us more self-centered than selfless, which makes us live for the pursuit of illusory things instead of living for the pursuit of the absolute truth.
At such times, we need to counter the influence of the outer magnet. So, how do we, outer magnetic field, how do we counter that magnet? Either we have to go out of that, or we have to place this magnet under another magnetic field, another magnet which aligns it in the right direction. So, that means, either we have to avoid the materialistic association which misleads us with mundane propaganda, which imprisons us with the definition of success as we discussed earlier.
Or, if we can’t go out of that association, then we have to create a sub-association of fellow spiritualists, and then our spiritual orientation will stay protected. So, association, then there is books. Now, Albert Einstein, when he read the Bhagavad Gita, he said, when I read the Bhagavad Gita, I asked myself, who God is and how he created the universe.
In contemplating these questions, in comparison with that, everything else in this world seems insignificant to me. So, the Bhagavad Gita is no merely theoretical or philosophical book. It is eminently action-calling book.
Because at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna took up this bow and fought in the middle of his duty. And similarly, actually speaking, the Bhagavad Gita is something which is not just about information. It is about, it is for transformation.
Studying the Bhagavad Gita, unlike studying any other books, will actually elevate us, purify us, and will change us. Worldly intelligences are just knowing facts. Okay, this happened, this happened, this happened.
But spiritual intelligence, complete intelligence means knowing the facts, but also knowing the basic principles of living, how to live, what is the purpose of living, all these things, we will actually get answers when we are able to study scripture. So, books can refer to any kinds of books, which are self, which promote our self-worth. But most important, it refers to books which are primarily, if not exclusively, devoted to our spiritual welfare.
And those are the spiritual books like the Bhagavad Gita. C is chanting. Chanting or mantra meditation is the best form of meditation.
So, in association through our relationships, we connect with God. In studying books through our intelligence, intellect, we connect with God. And in chanting, we connect with our heart, with God.
So, God is non-different from His holy names. And when we manifest, when we chant His holy names prayerfully, then He manifests over there. Actually, surveys in various parts of the world have found that chanting helps people to become calmer.
In the Florida State University, there was a PhD thesis done about the contribution of, about the effect how chanting brings out the positive within people and takes away the negative, decreases the negative. So, this is the vindication of the ABC process which the Bhagavad Gita talks about. There are ways in which we can retreat within so that we can treat without.
So, at present, we see that as a global spiritual revolution that is happening. More and more people are turning towards spirituality, are practicing yoga, meditation, interns, and so forth. So, if in such situation, if we, actually, leaders can become pioneers in enabling the whole society to come back to the spiritual path.
So, no doubt, difficulties will come. But spiritual wisdom of the Gita can enable one to overcome all difficulties and march onwards as an honorable person who did the honorable duty, not just because of considerations of honor, but because of considerations of the supreme devotion. So, in this way, when we work, so, actually speaking, this is the best way we can work, with our mind clear, with our consciousness focused on pleasing our beloved Lord, we are able to put our heart and soul into our work, knowing that even if no results come out externally, internally, all that labor has done us a lot of good.
So, that labor won’t be labor, it will be a labor of love. Now, mantra meditation offers many benefits. So, peace, purity, and pleasure are three primary ones among them.
Peace is just as a boat becomes calmer when anchored, similarly, our consciousness becomes calmer when it’s anchored to the holy name. Peace, and then purity. Now, we all have negativity within us, these are impurities, which actually weaken and choke us.
But when we connect with God, then we rise upwards, and we become free from these impurities. This may take some time, this happens gradually when we chant, and ultimately there is pleasure, the supreme pleasure is the pleasure of love. When we connect with Krishna in devotion, the more selfless our love, the more deeper we connect with Krishna, and the greater, richer are the insights that we get about how to live and for what to live for.
And in that way, we can move onwards in our life. This is a problem of no time, even when we understand that certain things are right, and it may well say that we just don’t have any time. And we can remember how somebody who’s stitching time saves nine, and how somebody just tries to fight off a small petty wager.
So, when we work on increasing our spiritual focus, then we are able to get all round benefit in our life. And such a lot of meditation and spirituality won’t take away our work time, they’ll take away our worry time. Worry time means the time which you spend needless anxiety because of not being able to control the mind.
That time will definitely be taken away, and we will actually have more time to do constructive things in our life. Thank you. Hare Krishna.
So, the question is,